Fenix Flexin had a long history of West Coast bangers before his '80s-inspired song "RUBBERZ" took the Internet by storm. At first, folks just expressed surprise at how different the track sounded from his previous material, and how catchy it was. But quickly, the conversation shifted to whether or not the record was AI-generated or saw other assistance from artificial intelligence. Now, that debate may be over for the general public, although nothing has seen explicit confirmation.
A TikTok video from artist Medasin recently went viral on the Internet for claiming "RUBBERZ" is entirely the product of AI technology. He accused the Shoreline Mafia member and the track's producer Purps of lying about its authenticity, claiming they used the software Treblo (formerly known as Sonauto).
As alleged evidence, @medasinmusic pointed to a song snippet Fenix posted before "RUBBERZ" came out that still had "Sonauto" in its file name. Sonauto allegedly rebranded to Treblo just two days before "RUBBERZ" came out, which followed other AI accusations against Flexin. This had Medasin and folks online wondering if there are financial ties between these parties, nothing of which has been verified at press time.
Then, Medasin broke down how to use Treblo, specifically its "tags" feature and their lyric box, to generate AI music. He shared an example he created with a vague lyric prompt, on which the voice sounds a lot like the Back In Bidness artist's voice on the viral hit.
Fenix Flexin's "RUBBERZ"
Medasin also claimed Treblo repeatedly uses many lyrics that appear on "RUBBERZ" in its results. The lyrics include references to heavy diamond chains, faces on champagne glasses, thick pockets, stacking bills, plastic smiles, losing friends, rubber bands snapping, money on the table, rain, and not sleeping at night.
In addition, Medasin explained why he thinks "RUBBERZ" isn't being used in this model to spit out these common bars in future prompts. When he used "Eminem" as a tag instead of "Fenix Flexin," Treblo allegedly gave him the same lyrics.
This joins other AI controversies in hip-hop, which will not get easier to parse through if this is sadly the new normal... If all of this is true, of course. Amid other debates about the technology in music, this stands as one of the most viral and consequential examples so far.
